Church ‘is on the brink of extinction’: Ex-Archbishop George Carey warns of Christianity crisis
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509379/Church-brink-extinction-Ex-Archbishop-George-Carey-warns-Christianity-crisis.html
18 November 2013
The Church of England is just ‘one generation away from extinction’, the former Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday.
Lord Carey laid the blame at the feet of Church leaders who he said should be ‘ashamed’ of their failure to bring youngsters into their services.
His stark message was echoed by the Archbishop of York, who told the General Synod that compared to the need to attract new worshippers, ‘everything else is like re-arranging furniture when the house is on fire’.
Ageing Church of England ‘will be dead in 20 years’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8633540/Ageing-Church-of-England-will-be-dead-in-20-years.html
12 Jul 2011
The average age of its members is now 61 and by 2020 a “crisis” of “natural wastage” will lead to their numbers falling “through the floor”, the Church’s national assembly was told.
The Church was compared to a company “impeccably” managing itself into failure, during exchanges at the General Synod in York.
The warnings follow an internal report calling for an urgent national recruitment drive to attract more members.
In the past 40 years, the number of adult churchgoers has halved, while the number of children attending regular worship has declined by four fifths.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_England
Membership
Official figures from 2005 show there are 25 million baptised Anglicans in England and Wales.[35] Due to its status as the established church, in general, anyone may be married, have their children baptised or their funeral in their local parish church, regardless of whether they are baptised or regular churchgoers.[36]
Between 1890 and 2001, churchgoing in the United Kingdom declined steadily.[37] In the years 1968 to 1999, Anglican Sunday church attendances almost halved, from 3.5 per cent of the population to just 1.9 per cent.[38] One study published in 2008 suggested that if current trends were to continue, Sunday attendances could fall to 350,000 in 2030 and just 87,800 in 2050.[39]
In 2011, the Church of England published statistics showing 1.7 million people attending at least one of its services each month, a level maintained since the turn of the millennium; approximately one million participating each Sunday and three million taking part in a Church of England service on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve. The church also claimed that 30% attend Sunday worship at least once a year; more than 40% attend a wedding in their local church and still more attend a funeral there.[40] Nationally the Church of England baptises one child in eight.[41]
The Church of England has 18,000 active ordained clergy and 10,000 licensed lay ministers.[42] In 2009, 491 people were recommended for ordination training, maintaining the level at the turn of the millennium, and 564 new clergy (266 women and 298 men) were ordained. More than half of those ordained (193 men and 116 women) were appointed to full-time paid ministry.[43] In 2011, 504 new clergy were ordained, including 264 to paid ministry, and 349 lay readers were admitted to ministry; and the mode age-range of those recommended for ordination training had remained 40-49 since 1999.[44]
Why would youths join a “church” that believes in nothing?